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Monday, December 24, 2012

Woman shot with flare gun, apartment catches fire

A 46-year-old man accused of shooting his girlfriend with a flare gun and then causing a fire inside their Dania Beach apartment is now being held in the county jail without bond.

Stephen Thunberg made a brief appearance Thursday at a bond court hearing where Broward Judge John "Jay" Hurley ordered he be held without bail on an attempted murder charge.Thunberg was also being held on a $75,000 bond for arson and ordered to have no contact with his girlfriend.Carmen Ramirez is recovering from a flare gun blast to her neck.
Thunberg's court record shows prior arrests for strong arm robbery, auto theft, a hit and run, and aggravated assault with a weapon in 1990.

Thunberg had worked as a handyman at the Pier 66 hotel and marina, his attorney said.

Neighbors say the incident started about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when the two were arguing in their apartment in the 200 block of Southwest 11th Street.

A woman was seen running from the burning apartment suffering from a bloody neck wound. She was recovering Thursday at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood with an injury described as not life-threatening, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Neighbor Dina Dawson, 42, heard a scream while folding laundry.

"I looked out the window and I see her running through the parking lot and see him following," Dawson said. "I look closer and I see him holding something in his hand with his shirt over it. Then I see her bleeding everywhere."

Dawson said she called 911.

Ramirez had lived in the apartment for only two months. Thunberg's father, 72, who lives with them, was at work in Boca Raton during the incident, she said.

"I had to call his dad at work all the way up in Boca to tell him what happened and he's a nervous wreck, I'm sure," Dawson said. "He was on a bus trying to get back [home]."

The couple's two dogs were taken away by a Broward County animal control officer. Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/